A fairy-tale run with an unfortunate ending
The third ball of the penultimate over, Poonam Yadav gives herself a bit of room and smashes a full-length delivery of Anya Shrubsole straight into the hands of Jenny Gunn at mid off. Little did the England team expect, their most experienced player and one of the unsung heroes of their successful campaign in this edition of the Women's World Cup would drop one of the simplest catches in international cricket.
With nine runs needed off the final eight deliveries, thoughts rallied back to the infamous dropped catch by Herschelle Gibbs in the 1999 World Cup which resulted in the Proteas being knocked out.
How much will England pay for this costly error? Has she just dropped the World Cup for her side? These were some of the innumerable doubts that keep creeping in as millions of people were glued to their television sets to watch this young and fearless Indian team carve their name in the history books.
But, alas, the universe had other ideas, as the next delivery was a well-directed yorker which went right through the defences of Rajeshwari Gayakwad and ensured that England recorded a famous win on their home turf and win the World Cup for the fourth time.
Just as the world came tumbling down for the Indian eves and probably the whole of India, hold on, pause, breathe and applaud the scintillating performance of this young bunch of girls who took the world of cricket by storm with their exploits at the international arena.
Not many people gave them a chance of competing in the World Cup finals; not many people reckoned they would even reach the final four stages of the competition, but they proved everybody wrong with their grit and determination to overcome the odds and create history.
Even before competing in the World Cup, these girls played in the Qualifiers of the tournament in Sri Lanka which I feel was a blessing in disguise as they entered this mega event with plenty of match practice and exposure at the international level, unlike the last edition. And, despite falling in the final frontier, the team has won millions of hearts with their stellar show in this iconic tournament.
In hindsight, if you try and analyse the dramatic collapse of this Indian team, one thing that you'll notice is the lack of competition for these players in the domestic circuit. In the current squad out of the 15 players, nine players are part of the Railways outfit including skipper Mithali Raj and the latest batting sensation, Harmanpreet Kaur.
If these players are part of a single team, the competition will always be a one sided affair as there might be some individual brilliance from one of the players of the opposition team but they seldom have the capacity to take the game away from their counterparts.
Extra cover: ICC Women's World Cup 2017: Team of the tournament
Try and understand this situation; when the South African batting line up was firing all guns blazing, the Indian bowling unit did not have the slightest of ideas to stop the carnage. This is only because they do not have the exposure and the experience in the domestic circuit where two batters are simultaneously going after the bowling attack.
It happens that one of the batters is going after the bowling attack, but they could at least try and maintain pressure from the other end which is next to impossible at the international level. The only successful bowler in that game was Shikha Pandey who picked up three crucial wickets, giving away just 40 runs in her nine-over spell.
And, the bowling star for the eves in that match comes from a laid back state of Goa which is famous for its white sand beaches and turquoise water. Time and again, she has handled this kind of pressure situation in the domestic cricket while leading her state side which ensured that she was a touch better prepared than her bowling partners.
Fast forward to the finals of the tournament at the Mecca of Cricket, Lord's where the Indian team is on the threshold of winning their maiden World Cup title after being comfortably placed in the run chase by their opening batter, Punam Raut. With less than 40 runs required and eight wickets in hand, the team suffered a mini collapse in the lower middle order and eventually succumbed by nine runs.
The nerves of playing in the finals of this prestigious tournament, the pressure of the packed crowd at the Home of Cricket, the pressure of the run chase and being on the brink of scripting a new beginning in the history of Indian cricket; it was all too difficult to handle for this young and inexperienced team.
Despite all this, with the match getting nerve wrecking after every single delivery, Sanjay Manjrekar in the commentary box revealed that the only person on the ground who is remarkably calm and composed is the teenager, Deepti Sharma. The youngster has single-handedly taken her state side, Uttar Pradesh to uncanny victories in the domestic circuit by playing some match winning knocks.
While the Indian team can take a lot of heart from this situation and rest assured for the future of the side, there are a lot of questions that they will have to answer before their next appearance in this high voltage event.
With the Railways being the only organisation offering jobs for the Women's Cricket, most of the players in the current squad are employed with them. The likes of Veda Krishnamurthy and Harmanpreet Kaur have graduated from their respective domestic teams to become an integral part of the Railways outfit.
Imagine this, how beneficial it would have been for these two girls to bear the mantle of their state side with the bat and guide their team through to the finishing line. Remember, the duo first broke into the Indian team by the sheer weight of their domestic performances wherein they were the mainstay in the batting department and their team would often crumble if they wouldn't have performed even in one of the matches.
While Railways has been doing a tremendous job of providing employment, it is a time we visualise about the growth and development of the Indian cricket as well the players as an individual.
Even before Mithali Raj sojourned with her young brigade for the World Cup, she was quoted saying that if the team managed to win the World Cup, it would create a revolution back home. Although they faltered in the summit clash, the whole of India is mighty proud of this staggering performance.
Extra cover: ICC Women's World Cup 2017: Mithali Raj engulfed in mixed emotions after final loss
It would have been apt for the two living legends of the Indian team, Jhulan Goswami and Mithali Raj to draw curtains to their World Cup careers with the trophy, but kudos to the team for creating such a significant impact on the people of India.
It is a new chapter in the history of Indian cricket and the World Cup has just provided us glimpses of the great things to follow.